Seven of these games probably represented a match that Lewis lost (+2 -5). Lewis enjoyed a considerable reputation as a chess player in his time. A correspondent writing to the weekly magazine Bell's Life in 1838 called him "our past grandmaster", the first known use of the term in chess. Starting from 1825 he preserved his reputation by the same means that Deschapelles used in France, by refusing to play anyone on even terms. In the same year Lewis founded a Chess Club where he gave lessons to, amongst others, Walker and McDonnell. He was declared bankrupt in 1827 due to bad investments on a patent for the construction of pianos and his chess club was forced to close. The next three years were quite difficult until in 1830 he got a job that assured him of solid financial security for the rest of his life. Thanks to this job, he could focus on writing his two major works: Series of Progressive Lessons (1831) and Second Series of Progressive Lessons (1832). The first series of the Lessons were more elementary in character, and designed for the use of beginners; the second series, on the other hand, went deeply into all the known openings. Here, for the first time we find the Evans Gambit, which is named after its inventor, Capt. Evans. The works of Lewis (together with his teacher Sarratt) were oriented towards the rethinking of the strictly Philidorian principles of play in favour of the Modenese school of Del Rio, Lolli and Ponziani. When he realised that he could not give an advantage to the new generation of British players, Lewis withdrew gradually from active play (in the same way that Deschapelles did after his defeat against De La Bourdonnais). After his retirement he wrote other chess treatises, but his isolation prevented him from assimilating the positional ideas of the new generation of chess players. For this reason, Hooper and Whyld in their Oxford Companion to Chess describe the last voluminous work of Lewis, A Treatise on Chess (1844), as already "out of date when published". He died in 1870 and was buried on the east side of Highgate Cemetery. His grave (no.12861) has no headstone or marker. References and notes External links Some of the games of Lewis can be found at chessgames.com English chess players British chess players 1787 births 1870 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Sportspeople